15 February 2011

BusTime – the MTA's real-time bus information pilot – has arrived along the B63 bus route in Brooklyn. The program is the latest initiative to alert riders to the status of their commute in real time, with actual bus locations available on the web, by text message and on your Smartphone.

If this pilot is successful, MTA BusTime will be expanded across the city, starting in Staten Island where every bus is set to receive the new technology this year.

MTA BusTime will take the guesswork out of waiting for the next bus through enhanced global positioning system devices, installed on 30 buses along the B63 route, that triangulate bus locations in real time. Accessible through cell phones and other electronic devices, all bus customers have to do is text us a code that will be prominently displayed at their bus stop. They will immediately receive a return text with the real-time locations of the next several buses.

The MTA is also working with area merchants along the route, who will soon be installing LCD signs that will display bus locations in real-time. So, bus customers can sip on their morning coffee or pick up a newspaper while knowing when their next bus is going to arrive.

Electronically-savvy customers can also use their Smartphones to snap a picture of a two-dimensional barcode we've installed at every B63 stop. A barcode-reading app can then interpret this information, and take you directly to our mobile website.

Our MTA BusTime website is accessible from any computer with an Internet connection. The site presents map-based moving images representing the real-time location of every B63 bus in service. The same information will be available through Smartphones, on a simplified website we've designed specifically for mobile phone browsers. (via)

wanna hear something disGUSTing? did you know that in new york city, if you want to play tennis at public park courts, you have to purchase a permit for $100 annually? i know. and listen to this: currently, the parks department is moving forward with a plan to increase the annual permit cost to $200. two. hundred. that's double.

leading the opposition is the mccarren tennis association, who famously raised money independently last year to resurface one of the seven courts at mccarren park, because the city has not done so in over 30 years. the USTA took notice, and granted them $56,000 more to finish the resurfacing the other courts. (before / after) now they are focusing their efforts on the parks commissioner, in an attempt to kill this measure, which will be voted on in a couple of weeks.

you can read an op-ed in the brooklyn paperhere, written by one of the group's founding members. and if you feel like expressing yourself, shoot the parks department a quick message here.